Something else

I imagine you sat in class in school and listened to how wrong people were about simple things. In hindsight these simple things seemed very obviously wrong. This blindness, based on conventional wisdom and some times supported by the science of the day, exists even now.

In our culture we subscribe to the philosophy we are all basically even in terms of innate capability. There are some recognized exceptions, such as the best athletes. Observational evidence suggests the opposite is true of the general population. There are people more gifted in all spectrum of endeavor. There is no such thing as a level playing field.

I first came face-to-face with this some years ago. My company hired a Consultant that had been the CEO of one of the largest transportation firms.  I was taken aback when I met him. He was not the stereotypical top corporate executive. He was about 5 feet 10 inches, very balding, a little bit portly, and maybe in his early sixties. He did not have a dazzling conversation of any apparent charisma. He was the kind of person you passed without noticing. I wondered how he had gotten so far?

He had been hired by my company at the senior executive level pay in the ranks just below the CEO. He was given a living expense account. In that account was a weekend travel allowance. The amount he was paid astounded us. He told us he was working to pay off the vacation home he was building in cash. The home was next door to the vacation home of the previous head of IBM at the time. As I worked around him, I watched how he matter-of-factly interfaced to the very top level in the corporation and the board of directors. He seemed to have no personal agenda. Yet he was unbelievably successful in terms of esteem he achieved with the top of the corporation. It was UNNATURAL.  It finally dawned on me, that because he was so atypical, he was a gifted person with some hidden type of innate ability.

I look at the people that rise in politics. Some are happenstance or sponsored, but a significant number seem to be like the consultant my company hired. These people have some mystic ingredient that places them heads and shoulder above peers.

Why do we not recognize the fact we live in an unequal world? The answer is conventional wisdom of our culture. In the future some student will be sitting in class and wonder how we were so stupid.

Size Matters

What is it that the alien space ships in Independence Day with Will Smith, the ship in District 9 and an aircraft carrier have in common? The answer is size. We equate size with power. Aircraft carriers do not have to be so large today. Drones and smart missiles are superseding jets. But do not look to aircraft carriers getting any smaller. The size is a key component of projecting American power.

Size in relationship to power is a part of our psyche.  An alien civilization picking up our television transmissions over a century would be able to determine this fact without even understanding human culture. They would simply draw correlations based on attributes of cause and effect. 

Particularly now we are not likely know about aliens existing. America is still the big boy on the block. It postulates it has no peer. An alien presence, even if it is far away and never likely to get here, would upset the apple cart. It would cause a questioning of the way we do things as humans as never before. 

There is also a little clause in international agreements that suspected alien contacts are a “state secret”. You can “Google” the American government guidelines.

At the top of the list of questions would be religion and economics [allocation and distribution of resources]. The culture shock would be greatest in the industrialized West. The West, particularly America, claims a patent on the best culture.

The aliens could send an unequivocal message. They would park something so huge in low earth orbit that it would blot out a sizable portion of the sky. It would be something easily seen with the naked eye from most anywhere on earth. Secrecy would go out the window.

In scientific research the constant challenge is not to let prejudice negate the results. It is true of information. If several expert witnesses, Astronauts, claim there is something going on the far side of the moon, take it seriously. No matter how much spin and miss information is put out. Especially, when their photographs have mysteriously disappeared and the ones that are published are acknowledged to be altered. 

We gaze at our navel, with the political wars of the parties, the economy and the budget. Might there be something higher up the priority list? Size matters. There might be a much larger issue.

I keep forgetting why

I keep forgetting why, until I recall the words of a Physicist. He was teaching the graduate math class I was taking years ago. He said we would never study math newer than a century. He sited examples and said the newer mathematics are the purview of the theoretical. It takes time to move out of that realm into acceptance.

I have been watching in recent years far out things that stand up to scientific proofs.  In my mind I wonder why they are not incorporated in our popular understandings and teachings?

The answer to my question is that many of these things are not “Newtonian”. They defy orthodoxy, conventional wisdom and logic. Our system of understandings would be under attack if we acknowledge these things. But if we do not acknowledge them, can we get closer to truth?

A simple case is the synapses of the brain. They function to transmit information. Experimental data is suggesting there is quantum entanglement involved [things happening between entities with no attachments]. But you can not very well add this to conventional wisdom. Conventional wisdom has not embraced the whole concept of quantum entanglement. 

Another case is that there is scientific proofs for a “sixth sense”. Yet, this has never gotten beyond paranormal and science fiction movies. Despite the fact the military quietly takes it very seriously.

To become conventional wisdom, new knowledge must navigate religion and culture. This sometimes takes decades. Today these items would be dangling participles in our mosaic of understanding. The other problem is that increasingly leading edge research is being performed in other countries. Then we run in to, “the not invented here”, syndrome. 

My overall impression of what I see with new knowledge is that our current understandings are seriously flawed. This is creating scotomas to advancement.  Shakespeare summed it up. 

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.  "Hamlet", Act 1 scene 5

Hare and Tortoise

The Aesop fable of The Tortoise and the Hare is famous. The Hare and the Tortoise enter into a race. It is obvious that the fleet Hare will easily run circles around the Tortoise. The Hare takes off and disappears in a blaze before the Tortoise can take a single step.

The Hare is extremely confident, so he does not want it to look too easy. He slows and dallies along the way. Finally he takes a nap near the finish line. All the while, the Tortoise is progressing one ponderous step after another. 

The Hare wakes from his long nap. He looks back down the road to see if he can see the Tortoise coming. No, the Tortoise in not in sight. He looks up ahead toward the finish line. He is shocked.  The Tortoise is about to cross the finish line. The Hare really never considered the Tortoise might catch up and move ahead. The Hare races as fast as he can. The Tortoise wins. 

America sprinted ahead in the 19^th century.  

• It had a wealth of natural resources and an influx of immigrants bringing different ways of doing things. This mushroomed into never before seen innovation. 

• The Great Depression really worked to America’s advantage. It created a labor force to perform public works still in use and a marvel today. It also resulted in social experiments that had world changing payoffs, such as universal free mandatory public education. 

• An ocean separated America from the machinations of the European powers. It gave breathing room and less demands on finances initially for security. 

• The great wealth of the nation allowed investment in other things that were to have high paybacks, such as NASA. The government funded research of universities and individuals out of purely intellectual interest. Some of the research resulted in home runs in innovation, technology and medicine. 

America has been napping. For nearly 70 years we failed to maintain and invest in core infra-structures. The roads, bridges, dams, water systems,  sewage systems and electrical grid are failing. It is estimate it would take 2 trillion dollars to bring them back up to standard. The political system has been captured by the richest 1% of Americans. They orchestrate the elections and demise of political candidates. They control the courts. The dysfunctional political system and the ever widening gap in economic disparity will result one day in revolution.

Today all the politicians are looking in the rear view mirror for guidance on today’s dilemmas. In some cases all the way back to the birth of the nation. But the past is not the present and the conditions are different. Looking back is a way for politicians to do nothing really constructive.

The Tortoises of the world are passing us in even our sacrosanct areas of science, technology and medicine. Our military prowess is not immune. 

We might wake up to the reality and sprint with all our might. At this point we would still find ourselves trying to hold on in the second world.

The Promise Land

A land of myth and promise. A desired destination for over a century. The fulfillment of fantasy. The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. We now dance in a spiraling circle of our bad choices. Each pause representing reason results in an increased frenzied restarting. 

We are the Israelites marching in the wilderness. The baby boomer generation that is the steward of conservatism. Seeking youth through a resurrection of the way things were at an earlier time of our lives. It is a shrewd memory. We have forged a golden calf of ideology. We gather manna from heaven in return on investments. 

This generation will die in the wilderness denied Eldorado. Our legacy will be our sins of commission, omission and disenfranchised generations of the promise. 

Will there be a Joshua and Caleb? 

Transferred Costs

Financial strategist of business and industry seek to stay ahead of the game to feed the insatiable profit monster. Here is a question. What is the resource that is limited and you must have it to live? What is the one resource that in some parts of the world it is more precious than gold?

America is coming late to the game in terms of water scarcity. America treats water as if it is not a limited commodity. We use over 12 gallons of fresh water a day per person just flushing the toilet.  We use over 5 gallons  a day taking baths. There are fights among States over the Colorado River. There are fights among States over artesian wells. There are areas in America artificially created by the advent of water. Parts of California, Arizona and Texas are examples.  Remove the inflow of water and they return to desolate lands.

Business and industry knows that the water situation is going to get a lot worst. The costs of fresh water will continually sky rocket. The Strategist have come up with a simple approach for business and industry to transfer the water costs of their products to consumers. The answer is for high water content products not have the water included. They are starting to market concentrate packets of products, just a bit cheaper than the regular product.  The goal is to get you to accept the concept. The consumer adds the water and sustains the water costs. The water costs are negligible – right now.

Look for more and more high water content products to have concentrate packet versions. Soon the complete original high water content product will no longer be available. Business and industry will have successfully transferred a commodity ingredient escalating in price to consumers.

That brings up another question. How will industries that use massive amounts of water in their manufacturing or extraction process transfer costs? The manufacture of aluminum uses a great deal of water. Coal mining often uses a slurry process. Our current energy love affair with natural gas in America uses "fracking". That process requires a lot of water. 

You can believe the strategist are hard at work to covertly transfer water costs.